Experiences of socially engaged toddlers with significant speech delay at 26 months

[Pipoppo]

My son is 26 months old and is still completely non-verbal and doesn’t really babble either.

What’s confusing is that socially he is very engaged. He has good eye contact, smiles, interacts with us, shares things, understands a lot of what we say and has communicated really well using signs from a very young age. He very clearly knows how to get his message across — it’s just the spoken language that hasn’t come.

I’d really love to hear from anyone whose child was similar at this age — particularly children who were socially engaged and communicating well non-verbally but had very little or no babbling or speech.

Did your child eventually start talking? Was there a particular diagnosis or reason behind the delay, such as apraxia, speech/language disorder or something else? And what helped the most?

I know every child is different, but I’d really appreciate hearing other people’s experiences. ❤️

For a close friend's child, ears were the issue. There was a complete turn around after Grommets were put in.

My DS was big for his age at 2, walked, ran and moved very well, but talked very little. I remember people didn't know what to think of him at the playground because he looked 3 and talked like a 10 month old, so I guess they assumed he had special needs.
DS eventually caught up.

Also, he used his own words for a long time. He had his own words for biscuit, coin, cup, etc

My ds was like this. The most engaging smile, ready to laugh, normal eye contact, loved playing with me, his big sister and his nursery friends.

Speech came very slowly - sentences when they came were jumbled and he struggled for words . I had to be very patient to let him think and not jump in and speak for him - his sister even more so, as it’s so easy to anticipate the needs of a small child.

Fast forward… finally when he’s in year 2 and I decided he is bright, so maybe something else is going on. I was advised to get a hearing test just in case and to my complete surprise … He has permanent high-frequency hearing loss in both ears, but it’s very mild and borderline for hearing aids.

Apparently the early years hearing tests can’t always pick up this kind of hearing loss.

As a toddler the speech delays were variously blamed on “because of Covid lockdown” and “because he’s a boy” and “because he is advanced in other areas, speech will catch up later” so through all his early years educators and infants school he just learned to get on with it.

I always felt there was some problem with cognition - I thought he might have a processing delay. And in a way he does, because his brain has to work harder to interpret what’s going on around him, and sometimes he finds it frustrating.

His audiologist says that as parents we probably learned instinctively to keep our sentences simple and make sure he was looking at us when we spoke (yes, we did!). And we followed online advice not to constantly correct him but to repeat back what he says so he can hear it and see the shape our mouths make.

His school was honestly astounded when they found out he was hard of hearing. He has a mild speech impediment and problems with grammar but it hasn’t held him back - except his self esteem is a little bit low as he occasionally feels and says he is stupid.

He has lots of friends, he’s incredibly chatty and gregarious. We are on vacation at the moment and he charmed his way into the cockpit to sit on the pilot’s chair as we got on the plane and he got a high five from the guy in the passport control for no reason whatsoever.

In some ways I think he’s had to work harder to read facial expressions and it’s helped him socialise, just not speak.

So get a hearing test!

My daughter was like this. It’s the no babbling which is unusual and usually isn’t explained by any sort of hearing loss or difficulties. Most babies will instinctively babble unless they are completely deaf and even then I think it’s still quite common. For her was a sign of speech apraxia. Can he copy any sounds you make? Or even facial expressions?

my DD also turned out to be autistic - she was and is highly sociable but she struggles sometimes with the social rules of things and to play in larger groups of kids. We had some speech therapy and her speech had probably caught up to normal by age 3.5 but looking back now I can see that even though she wasn’t behind anymore, her speech was atypical in some ways eg a stereotyped intonation, fixed use of certain phrases, some repetition.

She’s doing great and is now highly articulate and chatty 7yo so please don’t worry, the fact he is socially engaged is very positive all round. But as well as a hearing test I would also get a SLT assessment. They won’t diagnose speech apraxia at this age as it’s too early but there’s exercises they can recommend to help.

Not quite as speech limited as yours, but my oldest failed the 2 year check for speech - which in those days was 10 words. Socially brilliant. Way ahead in terms of movement.

About 6 months later he had an absolute word explosion, and started talking in sentences.

Yes, there is dyslexia & dysgraphia in there. But he's just been predicted 4xA* at Alevel (in STEM subjects).

There is every chance there is an issue and you should keep an eye on it. There is also every chance he's just bern focusing on other stuff.

My daughter was diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. This was around three years old. Hearing tests were all fine. She didn't babble etc like what babies usually do and clearly extremely delayed speechwise. There was also a lot of drooling ever since a baby and difficulties with mouth movement. Feeding/drinking difficulties, as well. Since having some rather intensive speech therapy, there has been some improvement but it is still rather apparent there are significant difficulties. Lots of the time, I struggle to know what my daughter is saying. A communication device can be very helpful to children who are struggling to make their needs/wants known verbally. It is also highly likely my daughter is autistic as well - waiting on an assessment regarding that. Putting little measures in place can really help non-verbal children. Picture cards can also help children convey their needs. Wishing you the very best and hope things start progressing.

Not quite the same as my DD had her own language it severe speech delay. She had a inverted hearing curve and was near hearing impaired and getting hearing aids for high frequencies and low frequencies were too loud.

She was 3 when she was diagnosed by chance by a practitioner who amongst other things offers Johansen Sound therapy. Fortunately our DC had auditory processing issues which it fixed rather than a physical hearing impairment.

@WhatsHerNameThingummydid you get auditory processing ruled out? My DD showed issues in her NHS hearing tests but they also kept dismissing her not hearing high frequency sounds that she was bored with the testing 🙄 she was not hearing high frequencies until near 40 decibels when at 3 years it should be in the teens 🤬

DD didn’t say a lot at 2. Mostly just no. Huge language explosion at 2 and a half. She is mildly dyslexic which she gets some support for in school but it doesn’t hold her back in any way- is at or above expectations in every subject, got a distinction on her last lamda exam, will be applying for drama scholarships to senior schools.